Movie No. 23: "The Counterfeiters"

When we meet Sally Sorowitsch (Karl Markovics) at the beginning of Stefan Ruzowitzky's "The Counterfeiters," he is something of a broken man, blowing through the stacks of money as if having them was torturing his soul.

It is a wonderful, perfectly pitched opening, so assured in its tone and character work. It is unfortunate that the rest of the film doesn't quite manage to live up to its greatness.

After the introduction, we flash back to during the war, when Sally was a hard-living master at his craft: counterfeiting. When the Nazis finally catch up with him, though, he is not put into the general population at a concentration camp, however. Instead, he is placed in charge of a group of printers and artists who have been given a not-so-simple task: counterfeit the British pound and the U.S. dollar to help fund the Nazi war effort. Thus they are given a choice: aid a government that is killing their people or get killed themselves.

The moral tug of war between those looking to survive and those looking to fight is given a good-enough portrayal. For some reason, however, it just can't seem to break through, to become more than good-enough. Perhaps it is because most of the other prisoners are only given one note to play: the saboteur, out to hurt the Nazis at all costs; the survivor, willing to do almost anything to make it through the war; the sickly, child-like artist who Sally takes under his wing.

The only other character who really offers much in the way of complexity and dimension is Devid Strieshow's Sturmbannführer Friedrich Herzog, the overseer of the group. A Nazi for convenience's sake, he makes an excellent mirror for Sally and a counterpoint as Sally deepens through his experiences in the camp.

On a whole, the film might not be at the same level of power as concentration camps dramas such as "Schindler's List" or "Fateless," but it is a compelling story, and Markovics' wonderful performance is enough to carry it past whatever flaws it might have.

B+